Page 17 of The British Bastard

Alex clears his throat. "I, ah, wanted to know if you prefer your eggs fried or scrambled."

"Oh. Scrambled." Just like my brain.

"Good. I'll, ah, go finish cooking everything." He turns away, then glances over his shoulder at me. And he smirks. "No cheating, love. You are not to come until I say so."

Normally, I don't like bossy men. But when Alex commands me not to come, I obey because I love everything he does to me. Still, I'm a wee bit fashed that I need to wait for my next orgasm. At least with Alex, I know it will be worth the wait.

I'm having sex with a man I barely know. My family would be horrified if they found out, but I donnae need to tell them everything. I'm a grown woman who can make her own decisions. And I've decided to be with Alex Thorne.

He returns a few minutes later carrying a tray of food. "Sit up, darling. You can't eat lying down."

I push up into a sitting position and grab the top sheet to pull it over me.

Alex sets the tray on my lap. "Go ahead and start eating. I'll join you momentarily."

Before I have the chance to ask where he's going, he strides around to the other side of the bed and climbs in beside me.

"I thought you meant you were leaving the room," I say. "But you're still here."

"Did you want me to leave?"

"No. I like having you here."

He picks up a cherry tomato and slips it between my lips. "I assumed we would share the food."

I eat the tomato and kiss him. "I'd love to do that."

We enjoy our shared meal, feeding each other bits of food and making jokes so often that it takes us an hour to finish. It's hard to chew while laughing. I've never had this much fun with a man before. Well, my brothers are entertaining too, and so are my male cousins. But the fun Alex and I have together is different. None of the other men I dated wanted to enjoy this kind of intimacy with me. Sharing a meal while naked? No, they wanted to leave as soon as we had a poke. They didn't even stay a few minutes to cuddle.

But Alex, the man who confounded me all week long with his strange behavior, seems to be in no hurry to leave this bed.

After setting the tray on the floor, Alex whips the sheet off to expose our naked bodies—and his growing erection. "Shall we have another poke, my bonnie Scots lass?"

I laugh. "Aye, we should."

He called me his lass. I like that.

We spend the rest of the morning in bed, though not asleep. Alex knows how to turn sex into a workout, but then he'll turn around and make love to me with such tenderness that I get a strange pang in my chest. It's not a bad feeling.

In the afternoon, we go sightseeing since neither of us know the city well. Ballesteros lies in the mountains rather than the desert, so it has grass and conifer forests. When I decided to do my PhD program here, I'd expected that all of New Mexico must be flat and dry, but I was wrong. I'd looked up pictures of the area on the internet while planning my move, and the landscape had intrigued me.

When I tell Alex that, as we're driving down the road, he chuckles. "You moved to another country for the trees. Cat, you are adorable."

"Not only for the trees. I liked the mountains too."

"Well, that makes sense, of course."

He's teasing me, but I love that. Since Alex is driving, I decide to tease him in return.

I lay a hand on his thigh and slide it up toward his groin. "Why did you move to New Mexico?"

"Not for the ruddy trees, that's for sure." He grimaces when I move my hand a wee bit higher, grazing his cock. "But I'd be happy to fuck you in the woods if that's what turns you on."

"What turns me on is you."

He glances at me and smirks, though I can't see his eyes because he's wearing sunglasses. "Better remove your charming little hand from my leg, darling. If I develop an erection, I won't bother pulling over to the side of the road to shag you. I'll do it while the car is moving, and I can't swear we won't cause a mile-long pileup."

I pull my hand away and laugh. "Eyes on the road, Alex."

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